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Monday, August 10, 2009

We've Been Here Before...

So I'll allow you to say...Not This Again!

However, weeks or months ago I posted as to whether we should consider eating food past its sell by date and how important is it not to eat items past their use by date. We have food experts telling us of the dangers to our health should we not adhere to the expiry dates printed on packets and boxes of what we buy from our supermarkets etc...

But how many of the local fresh produce food shops have items that do not have a date printed on what is being sold and when you next purchase something from the deli on how many items can you see a date on what is being sold? Isn't this roughly how our parents used to buy food? How many people had to stay within a budget and often re-use leftovers etc...

This all comes about because once again our Government is talking about how we may find food being in short supply because of climate change, too any people in the world for the Earth to sustain the population. We hear this year after year but is any actual action taken, if it is I seem to be missing it.

We also have some articles in the press suggesting that there is enough food and perhaps we are eating too much and that we should eat less. We also have others saying that we need to increase output.

We have suggestions that we should go back to a diet similar to what we had during wartime, eat smaller portions and ration ourselves either by choice or having it forced upon us.

I can eat as much as anyone but because I am not doing loads of physical exercise I am not burning calories and I find that I can survive on small amounts but I try to eat a good variety of food to supply all the vitamins and minerals my body needs.

There are sites on the internet selling items near or after the Best Before dates and they are doing very well as families realise that most of the time the food is safe and in difficult economic times it is saving money, I have seen some shops selling sweets in my town that are near or after the best before dates but for the first time ever a few days ago when I was looking for some chicken breasts in a large nationwide supermarket I found three or four items all being sold at half price or with a large reduction on price, people were buying without looking at the date but I discovered on closer inspection that they had best before dates going as far back as April in some cases. Usually supermarkets are quick to remove any item that has a date that has expired(perhaps they are supposed to be law)so whether this was an error(I doubt it with so many items on sale)or a new idea I am unsure.

It also brings home that many such items usually have the guidance that you can freeze such items but they must be used with in a month but if they have a date of April that's already approx 3-4 months over the accepted date before you've got it home. I wonder how many of those buying realised.

If this is ok I may in future still eat meat that is a few months old...if it is looked after at the proper temperature and has not gone off by smell or appearance and is cooked thoroughly I am not really sure what harm you can come to.

I decided to purchase fresh chicken breasts(a little more expensive)but they can be frozen and kept for a while...

We are being told to ignore or consider eating things past their sell by date and yet in the same breath experts say that the young and elderly must be careful. In the end it comes down to common sense as much as anything. The important thing is that you store food correctly and follow simple rules.

What Can We Do

Return To The Old Days

2 Comments:

Blogger Span Ows said...

very few mention the fact that there are already too many people...just that there's not enough food, not enough space, not enough energy, not enough whatever and yet the answer is that there are too many people...end of. If they dedicated time, money and effort to that then the other problems would all fade away.

13 August 2009 at 17:37  
Blogger The Great Gildersleeve said...

I'm glad that you mentioned that Span as I seem to miss that out of my post and I think that is a major reason but few like to admit it for a various reasons.

Often where the Earth's resources are not great and the climate is not helping the situation, that is where the population is usually too high.

13 August 2009 at 19:01  

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